Creative Convos

Day 1: DINES from Studio Blip 

Dines gave an honest review of working in the design industry - Ups and downs

DINES created his studio in his bedroom whilst at uni. His passion for design is originated through his eagerness to create fun and exciting work for local nightclubs and bars. From doing a poster, Dines expanded his reputation by creating menus to open up further opportunity. This demonstrates the importance of getting your work out into the world.

Dines' placed his logo on his early designs which increased awareness of his studio and gave him more opportunities - Free advertising.

Named his studio 'BLUP' due to its simplicity. Dines demonstrates how he expanded his brand by printing it on apparel.

Advice:

• Email Address' shouldn't contain 'gmail', 'hotmail', etc. In order to be recognised as a professional, it is essential to use a personalised email address.
• Moving image is important in order to stay innovative.
• In order to stand out it helps to have a style or edge

DINES' DEN
Pitched a previous project from second year in order to get some professional feedback. As Dines' practice seemed predominantly digital, I chose to pitch the People of Print website redesign.

Brief:
Re-design the People of Print website to communicate the raw, experiential qualities of print media.

Achieved this through:

• Engaging visuals
• Layering pages to emulate paper
• Ability for the user to save articles and studios to refer back to
• Educates the audience on unconventional printing methods

When pitching, I played the animated video demonstrating how the site works:

Feedback:

Dines was excited and passionate about all the work on show which was encouraging and inspiring. Having a professional within the industry getting excited about our work and offering constructive feedback made it a really exciting workshop.

• Get in contact with People of Print and show them the site.

Response: I contacted PoP via Twitter and attached the animated video of the working site. Although they responded and I gained their following, I should have formulated professional and considered design boards to pitch to them.

• Get a quote from a developer to see how much it would be to code and put into action. 

• This is an example of proactive design because, even if People of Print decide not to use it, the logo can be changed to suit a different brand/organisation. 

Day 2: Rose Nordin from OOMK and Rabbits Road Press

Inspiring to hear success from someone specialising in print. Nordin's practice specialises in print and editorial design therefore her input is really valuable as this is an area of design that I am specialising in. Her projects are a combination of self directed and commissioned outcomes. It was particularly useful when Nordin explained her role as an artist in residence for gallery institutions. Organisations such as the British Council offer funding to complete commissions and self-directed projects which has opened up new opportunities to explore before I graduate from the course.

My dissertation explored the influence of the artists' book on publishing

OOMK Zine is a publication about women, art and activism

When proposing for funding from the British Council, you must outline how much money you require for funding. It is important to consider a professional day rate to make sure you're not working for free. - £175?

Advice:

• If working in print, make sure it is printed out and physical when taking it to interviews. 
• Show a relationship between print and online 
• Worth looking at - Artsfund, artquest, artcouncil, AN.net (for pricing)

Workshop - Lexicon of Industry

We were each allocated a letter from the alphabet to which we had to think of a word that describes the design industry beginning with that letter. Each letter was allocated a page of the book which was then scanned and photocopied to reproduce the artwork in the format of a zine. This was a really beneficial way of generating content quickly and generating further ideas.

Day 3: Robot Food

Simplify and amplify
Keep design simple and memorable
Identify what is missing
Do the unexpected
Design for the audience
Project Disrupt



Day 4: Shannie Mears, Will De Groot - The Elephant Room

Challenge the lack of diversity and awareness within the advertising industry - Making advertising more diverse
Looked at previous advertising campaigns
What do we want from advertising?
Connect with everyone and build a network
Don't disregard unprofessional work - These can often be better than portfolio pieces
Work outside of work is just as important
Always good to voice concerns
Don't undervalue yourself




Day 5: Abraham from the Pop Up Agency

Creative consultant
Democratising creativity

'Check in' - Keep everyone on the same page
Naive enough to have the idea and stubborn to complete it
One CEO knows another CEO
Business plan: Salary/Expenses/Spending - 33%

Ideas - Must be able to explain the concept in 1 sentence
Revisit goals and objectives

What have I learnt?

• NEEDS AND VALUES
• How to simplify a concept into 1 sentence 
• Clearly explain aims and objectives
• New methods of ideation
• It's all about the idea
• Don't undervalue myself - Charge a bomb

How will I apply this moving forward?

• Keep personal values close
• Evaluate every idea considering impact and implementation